Today's Opinions

We have pushed and cajoled many to get both effort and answers about the Shelbyville Bypass. The project is woefully behind, and no one seemed concerned about that except for the Shelby Countians who kept asking the questions.

We voiced those questions and received, in some cases, nebulous responses, until our elected leaders stood up to do as we expect them to do.

Rep. Brad Montell and Sen. Gary Tapp asked questions, too, and now we have some answers. The bypass may not be completed any faster, but at least we have some explanations.

The Shelby County Fair A&M Board is feeling a pinch after its recent Shelby County Fair started reasonably well and then lost all momentum in a deluge of rainstorms and heat. Attendance flagged, and the economic balance of the event has become more fragile than had been expected.

But the deteriorating attendance at the 2009 fair cannot solely be placed at the feet of climatology and public apathy.

We like the idea of building more trails in Shelby County for walkers, runners and cyclists. We believe any county that contributes heavily to a state with such a poor record for obesity should make any health-related concept a high priority.

And we agree with letter writer Abby Cottongim’s suggestion that a good place to start is to link the residential streets of Shelbyville to Clear Creek Park.

We sure are glad you got those folks from Kay and Kay Contracting to agree to meet with you this week.

Somebody needs to set those guys down and have a quiet word with them about how they took our money -- $26.5 million! – to build us a 4.5 miles of road and so far left us with a lot of dirt and disruption.

If it weren’t so sad, we might think it was funny to call them Highwaymen. It feels like we’re getting held up.

I have recently been thinking about the church. Not just local churches like Shelby Christian, where I minister, but the church nationally and globally – and about the impact it is (or isn’t) making in the world.

The names Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth will forever be linked in the first-ever assassination of a U.S. President.

Not so well remembered are the eight co-conspirators in the assassination -- one of whom grimly became an historic first herself.

It was 144 years ago Tuesday in Washington that, alongside three of the other conspirators (George Atzerodt, David Herold and Lewis Powell), Mary Surratt became the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government.